The Water Dragons, an anti-water mining activist group, have demanded the Tweed Shire Council reject the ‘land swap’ proposed for the Nobby’s Creek water extraction operation.
‘This has gone on long enough,’ said Muzz Dreschler, spokesperson for the group. ‘It’s time for water mining to stop. Now!’
Mr Dreschler says that illegal infrastructure that has been used for years to unlawfully steal water was built on crown land. ‘Council has miraculously arranged for the release of the crown land to do a “land swap” with owner Garry Appleby.’
‘This will make the illegal operation suddenly legal. Try doing this with, say, your next parking ticket.’
Mr Dreschler says profitable, parasitic, polluting and providing no jobs: water mining fails the most basic public interest test. ‘Council will vote on the land swap on November 7. We demand council rejects the application and orders the illegal structures demolished.’
The group held a picnic at the gates of the Bryen’s Road Nobby’s Creek operation to demand the water extraction industry for bottling stop immediately. Twenty-one people peacefully protested to make their point near the illegal infrastructure on Saturday.
‘It’s water theft. In a time of drought, with falling water tables, in the face of imminent climate change, this awful industry has to stop,’ said Mr Drechsler.
‘Tweed Shire Council bends over backwards to allow these operators to have their extra truck movements approved even though they’ve been happening for years.
‘Tweed Shire Council has a habit of not enforcing the Development Application Conditions – it happened at the Karlos operation at Urliup and the recent Land and Environment Court decision made this abundantly clear’.
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